Art Imitates Life and Tugs at Real Emotions for All of Us

I, like many others, watched the emotional departure of Jimmy Smits' character Bobby Simone from "NYPD Blue." That episode, and others like it, sparked a very strong response in many.

Television seems to create a kind of pseudoreality that draws us in and makes the characters seem so real to us. We are drawn to their lives, and feel the impact of their troubles and their joys. Therein stems the connection that makes their experiences so real to us.

We find we have to remind ourselves that this is only fiction. The emotions involved seem so real, as if we have really gone through this tragedy ourselves. And maybe that's the key. Scenes like this, along with tragic pieces on the nightly news, evoke feelings in us of painful past experiences, and play to some of our deepest fears. They also remind us of the frailty and preciousness of life.

We are reminded of our mortality and are forced to think about what we really want out of life, and how we want to live life. We know we need to learn to experience more joy and to be thankful for each day. We question past and current decisions. We may have found ourselves questioning Diane's (Kim Delaney) decision to forgo any last-minute heroic efforts, and secretly wondered what we would have done in that situation. Maybe we have faced a similar situation ourselves and it brought back all too familiar and painful feelings.

Personally, this episode caused me to remember some of my own painful experiences. …

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